New Company Launches With Aim of Colonizing Mars

A new
center that aims to be a cross between a museum and an amusement park may soon
allow people to explore a Martian settlement without ever having to leave
Earth.

The Martian
research and outreach center will be operated by Four Frontiers, a new
Florida-based space commerce company whose main objective is the establishment
of a permanent human settlement on Mars.

"We see
ourselves as the pioneers of the new space frontier," said Four Frontiers' CEO
Mark Homnick. "We follow in the path made by the early explorers such as NASA
and the ESA. We settle in the new land, we turn it into a home and add value."

Four
Frontiers is headed by many of the same people who helped establish the Mars
Foundation, the non-profit organization who earlier this year presented
detailed plans for a Martian settlement the group called the "Homestead Project."

But whereas
the Homestead Project was narrowly focused on designing a settlement capable of
sustaining a small group of initial Martian settlers, Four Frontiers will have
a broader perspective, its member said.

"We want to establish the Mars
settlement envisioned by the Mars Foundation because we view it as the
essential element that will help open up the rest of the solar system," said
Joseph Palaia, the company's Vice President of Operations. "But there is a
wealth of opportunity beyond that that we are looking at."

The company
is named after the emerging inner-solar system economy that its members believe
will soon develop, one that will be driven by the convergence of four frontiers:
Earth, the Moon, Mars—including its two moons, Phobos and
Deimos—and Asteroids.

"The
beginnings of the solar system economy are happening as we speak," Homnick told
Space.com. "This is not something that's fifty or one hundred years away, this
is something that's going to be happening in the next couple decades."

Homnick
said Four Frontiers' focus will be primarily on the technology and design of
the Martian settlement. The business of getting to Mars will be left to other
companies which Four Frontiers will then partner up with.

The
company's 5-year goals include the construction of a 25,000-square-foot replica
of a Martian settlement here on Earth. Unlike similar projects aiming to
simulate Martian conditions, Four Frontier's center will be located near a
metropolitan areas and will be open to the public.

The center
will serve as a source of revenue for the developing company as well as educate
and inspire the public and garner support for the project.

"Folks wont'
just be on the outside, they'll be able to literally walk through a Martian
settlement," Homnick said. "They'll be able to see it, touch it and understand
that its feasible with our current technology."

The company
is currently scouting out locations for the center in Florida, Colorado and New
Mexico and plans to make a final decision by the end of the year. The center is
scheduled to open in mid-2007.

Four
Frontiers will also have a research and development section that will focus on
the production of core technologies necessary for Martian colonization, but
which could also have uses in the other frontiers like the Moon and asteroids.

In addition
to research and outreach, the company also plans to act as a consultant to
manufacturers and government agencies who want to participate in the new
inter-solar system economy.

The group
believes a Martian settlement could be established as soon as 2025 if the cost
of private launch vehicles continues to drop as predicted.

Homnick
said Four Frontiers is currently looking to recruit a few enthusiastic
individuals to join the company.

"If you've
got freedom in your heart, courage to face the unkown, and discipline to
deliver, contact us, and perhaps we can realize our dreams together," he said.